


Café Libraria

by moodyme



Series: Pynch Week 2019 [2]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, But He Gets Better, Crack Treated Seriously, Don't Examine This Too Closely, M/M, OR Take It Too Seriously, Oh my God this is so stupid, Pynch Week 2019, Ronan is kind of an asshole, i guess this is, idk anymore, or something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-25 03:57:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20717708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moodyme/pseuds/moodyme
Summary: Ronan inherits a bookstore/cafe hybrid, but he isn't complaining (too much). It's rotten work, but somebody's gotta do it.Pynch Week Day 2: Coffee Shop/ Bookstore AU (both!)





	Café Libraria

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be 1,500 words that actually made sense. Instead, this 3.7k unedited mess happened. Sorry.

Niall Lynch was, as nearly everyone who had met him knew, eccentric.

He had left his beloved Ireland behind him because he was eccentric.

Had bought a small farm in Virginia because he was eccentric.

Had started and ended a few dozen business ventures, because the idea of them sounded interesting at the time. Because he was _eccentric_. And he loved being eccentric. Loved how it always surprised people when he could talk about boxing and poetry in the same breath. Was gleeful at the looks of confusion when he professed a fondness for WWE and French impressionism and New Orleans Jazz and politics and alien conspiracies. Loved when these businesses and his eccentric tastes melded together. Like the art gallery and the accounting firm and the boxing gym.

The fact that they were always successful was even more confusing to outsiders, and this confusion was just another source of glee for Niall Lynch.

And then, on a bright and sunny Spring day, he dies.

* * *

After the will is read, Ronan points at a random stack of papers on his dad's desk and says, "I want that one."

"They're _all_ yours," Declan sighs, reorganizes several other stacks of paper, "You don't get to pick just one."

Right. Because their dad had just left everything to Ronan. All his property, all his assets, all his businesses. Ronan doesn't know what to do with all that, Declan had always been the one helping dad, not him and certainly not Matty.

Ronan is pretty certain Declan is jealous that he had gotten everything of monetary value that their dad had. But Declan had gotten the better deal, and probably, both of them knew it. Because Declan got guardianship of Matthew.

"Okay, then I'll take the Barns, too," Ronan says. His back still hurts from his new tattoo and his head is throbbing from his hangover.

Declan rolls his eyes, scoffs, and turns to read something on the first page of the stack of papers Ronan had pointed at. "You want," He says, frowns, "The café in Cambridge? And the Barns? What do you want to do with the rest of this stuff, sell it?"

Because Ronan is stubborn, he does not back down from wanting the stack he had chosen. Even though he thinks 'coffee' is just another word for 'Satan's piss'.

"Yep," Ronan says, popping the p because he knows it annoys Declan, "You can just run the rest of these, I'll hire you as my manager or whatever. Keep the business in the family."

Declan answers back with something that pisses Ronan off, and Ronan says something nasty back. It escalates into a fist fight.

When the dust settles, Ronan signs over the larger portion of his dad's money and businesses to Declan, who probably thinks that means he won.

Sucker.

* * *

The best thing about Cambridge is that Gansey is there. When Ronan tell's him about the café, he thinks his friend would be ecstatic if it weren't in such poor taste to show such an emotion over Ronan coming to run it only because his dad had just died.

Ronan arrives at dawn a few week's later, and lets himself into the café with his shiny new key. He can't find the light-switch so he settles for using the flashlight on his phone to get a better look at the place. It's... _quaint _fits well enough. There are book shelves along three of the walls, well. Two and a half, as a half of one wall is a large window with '_Café Libraria _' across it. The fourth wall contains a coffee station, chalkboard menu, and a till. A few tables and sofas are scattered about, and they look comfy. Homey, even. It's all warm woods and dark colors and plants on almost every flat surface.

It's kind of gross.

"Who the fuck are you!" He hears a voice exclaim, and he turns, shines his flashlight directly in the guy's eyes.

"Who the fuck are _you _?" Ronan repeats back, refusing to let the other man see that he is startled.

"I'm the manager, and I've already called the cops," He says back, and he's gripping a phone in his hand and Ronan believes him. "There's nothing to steal anyway- could you stop shining that directly in my eyes, _God_ \- we empty the till every night."

"You think I'm a thief?" Ronan asks, turns off the flashlight on his phone. He can't see the other man too clearly, the shop is still a little too dark for that, but he gleefully thinks about how he is about to ruin this guy's whole career. Literally.

"Yes?" The guy says, a little unsure. 

Ronan barks out a laugh at that, laughs harder when red and blue lights appear outside the window and spread over them.

He laughs harder still at the look on the guy's face as he is shoved into the back of the police cruiser.

Gansey bail's him out the next morning, waving around Ronan's proof of ownership and indignantly telling anyone that'll listen that they'll be hearing from his lawyers. Gansey drives him back to Café Libraria, follows him into the store, and greets the manager and the child behind the counter like old friends.

What.

Ronan looks at Gansey, knows his face is a mixture of betrayed and angry and proud.

"I sort of know Adam from class," He explains, "And Ja- Blue here is friends with Adam. We met through him."

"Jablew is a weird fucking name," Ronan says, ignores the manager, Adam, and how ashen his face is. It's a nice face. Shame he has to fire him.

"Blue," She huffs, "Just Blue."

"Blue is a weird fucking name," Ronan says, and turns to Adam, "You realize I have to fire you. I can't have my managers going around accusing innocent, upstanding citizens, and their bosses, of theft."

"Sir," Adam says through gritted teeth, "I had no idea you were the owner. I was just doing my job, taking care of the shop."

"Yeah, okay," Ronan shrugs. Adam looks at him, confused, before nodding his head, unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth, or whatever.

He kinda thinks Adam's face is more than just nice.

* * *

Ronan shows up every day, not to work, but to stand behind the counter and annoy Adam in the early morning, and Blue in the afternoon while Adam is in class, and Adam _and_ Blue in the evening. Gansey usually shows up as well, after his classes are finished for the day, also not to work. Instead, he sits hunched over his textbooks at the table closest to the counter, where he can still contribute to whatever conversation is happening.

Adam finally gets him to do a little work, so he flips through the stack of resumes.

"What did you put down as your reason for wanting to work here?" He asks Adam.

"Um," Adam says, "I was, uh, headhunted? By the previous manager from the Starbucks across the street.

Ronan looked out the window, across the street. There wasn't a Starbucks there, and he told Adam this.

"Well, not _now_ there isn't," He says, like that perfectly explains it.

"How about you, Maggot?" Ronan asks.

"Because we're fair trade and sustainable," Blue says. 

Ronan frowns, asks, "Really?"

"Yeah," Blue says, excited, "We source all of our beans from small farms in South America, and-"

"Stop stop stop," Ronan says, "Adam, I want to switch this shop over to non-fair trade. Make it as non-sustainable as possible."

"No," Adam says, doesn't even look up from where he is preparing a customer an espresso, "Get back to finding a new hire."

"Fine," Ronan huffs, and then a thought strikes him and he throws all the papers in the air, picks up the first resume that landed face-up, and slaps it on the counter, "I choose this one."

Adam smiles, tightly, at the customer as he hands over their drink. He wishes them a good day, and finally, finally, picks up the resume. He gives it a quick scan, sighs, says, "Yeah, okay." And hands the paper back to Ronan.

He reads the 'Reason for wanting to work here' section, and the guy had written, '_It just seems like a good idea, or something, I don't know man._'

Ronan, instantly, likes him.

* * *

Finals week sucks. 

Gansey is stressed and busy and doesn't come into the shop hardly ever.

Adam is also stressed and busy, and although he spends the same amount of time in the shop as before, he rarely deigns to go along with Ronan's bullshitting. Doesn't laugh at any of his jokes. Doesn't snark back at Ronan.

Doesn't really smile his little smile that softens all the sharp features of his face.

It sucks.

At least there's Noah. He's cool. And he avoids work as much as Ronan does, so now Ronan always has someone to do donuts with in the parking lot, or stack recyclable paper cups with in the break room, or gossip about customers with.

Except, that last one kinda sucks too, sometimes.

"Oooooh," Noah says one evening, while Adam works behind the till and Ronan and Noah are supposedly stocking books on the shelves but are really trying to one up each other on placing books that sound like they belong in a particular section, but really don't, in that section.

"What," Ronan says, places a book titled '_We should Talk_ ', a murder mystery, in the tiny self-help section.

"Nooothing," Noah giggles, goes back to pretending to do his job. But he keeps shooting surreptitious little looks behind his shoulder. Ronan looks back as well, but all he sees is Adam and one of their regulars, a girl about their age.

"Fucking what," Ronan says after the fifth time Noah looks back and giggles.

"It's really nothing, just this little theory I have going," Noah replies, leans in closer to Ronan and whispers, "See, she always comes in around the same time, and always orders a super complicated drink, right? Right. So, my theory is, she comes in at the same time, because that's always when Adam's working. And she always orders a complicated drink so she can spend more time with him."

"That's creepy," Ronan says.

"It's cute, like a rom-com," Noah insists.

"It's gross, like a horror movie about a stalker," Ronan grimaces, looking back at Adam and the girl.

"Oh, come on," Noah says.

"No," Ronan mumbles, "It's weird when people do that with people in the service industry."

"Duh," Says Noah, and Ronan knows without looking at him that he is exaggeratedly rolling his eyes, "But Adam's not the kind of guy that would take that, it was just a joke dude."

"Whatever," Ronan huffs, puts the next two books away in their proper places because he's distracted by glancing over at Adam and the girl every so often. He stops when he sees Adam laughing at something she says, is able to breath easier knowing that Adam probably isn't bothered after all.

Ronan stays until closing, and it's just him and Ronan left in the shop. Adam is busy wiping down the counters and Ronan pretends he knows what he's doing with a mop. He doesn't think he really fools anyone, but he guesses it's the thought that counts, or something.

"Do you know that regular?" He asks, all casual, while wringing out the mop in the bucket. Most of the dirty water ends up back on the floor, and Ronan ignores it, figures it'll be open when Blue opens in the morning. "The one with the long hair?"

"Jada?" Adam says, "We had a couple classes last term, why?"

"Oh, nah, it's just something Noah said," Ronan says, tries to think of a way to ask Adam if she had been flirting with him, if he was okay with it, if Ronan, as the owner, needed to do something about it.

Adam makes a frustrated sound, and Ronan turns to look at him, asks, "What?"

"Was it about her having a crush or whatever on me?" Adam groans, gripping the rag he was wiping the counter with so hard his knuckles were white. "He never lets up, God."

"So, what? You don't think she has a, a crush, or whatever?" Ronan says, forces his voice to stay calm.

"No, God, you should hear the way she talks about her boyfriend," He says, and pretends to gag, "It's gross how mushy she is."

"Ok, cool," Ronan says, and goes back to mopping.

They go out to eat later, and Adam pays, which is weird. The next night it's Adam turn to close, Ronan stays with him, drags him to dinner again. And he insists he pays this time, because Adam paid last time.

Begrudgingly, Adam accepts this very sound logic.

Over the following week's it sort of keeps happening, until it's just a thing. On nights that Adam closes, Ronan stays behind and they get dinner after.

Ronan resolutely ignores how he doesn't do this, nor does he want to do this, with any of the other people in the shop

* * *

Summer greets them with a power outage, which is awful, but not as awful as the sight that greets Ronan the next day, when he goes back to the break room to grab something.

Blue and Gansey are making out on the couch, in a very twisty position. There's a lot of hand moving. And, worse still, hip moving.

Ronan yells, "Get the fuck back to work!"

Both of them scramble away from each other, and Blue goes back to the till and Gansey, for whatever reason, starts rearranging books on the shelves to their proper areas. Like it's his job. Ronan goes back to the break room, checks his employee logs and shift schedule and payment info, and finds Gansey's name there.

Later, he asks Adam, "Since when did we hire Gansey?"

"Since last week," Adam sighs, "You hired him when you were drunk."

"Oh," Says Ronan, tries to remember the incident in question, vaguely recalls feeling sad that Gansey didn't have a proper reason to hang out with him in his cafe. He writes himself a quick note on his arm in sharpie, reminding him to dock Gansey's pay. "Since when were Gansey and Blue a thing?"

Adam looks at him like he can't quite believe he is hearing what Ronan is saying. "Seriously?" He asks.

"Did that start last week too?" Ronan says, confused. Sure, he had noticed the prolonged eye contact and stupid little blushes between the two, but he didn't know how that could have so quickly escalated into a heavy make out session on his couch.

"Wow," Adam laughs, looks at Ronan like he's an impossible thing, "They've been dating for months, since Spring, at least."

Ronan opens his mouth to insist that that can't be true, because Gansey would have told him. Except. He snaps it shut quickly, remembers Gansey mumbling something about a 'Jane' that had caught his fancy. The way he recognized the name of the cafe when Ronan had told him about it. He still talked about Jane all the time, all moony and gross about her. Ronan had ignored it, assumed that something would develop with the maggot instead. But. But Jane and Blue had been the same person the whole fucking time.

"Oh my God," Ronan says, says it again for emphasis.

The next week, a heat wave passes over Cambridge and, because fate likes fucking him over, the aircon in the café also decides to go out. It leaves the shop hotter than hell, and they're forced to close done until they can get it fixed. 

Ronan spends the entirety of the first day on Gansey's coach, bored out of his mind. 

He spends a few minutes the next day abusing his privileges as the owner to track down Adam.

"I should have known it was you," Adam sighs when he opens his door.

Ronan grins, his finger still pressed to the peephole, a clever trick he had learned to disguise his identity from Declan, who had tricked him twice by pretending to be a pizza delivery guy only to fucking ruin Ronan's day by instead being just Declan.

Ronan spends the rest of the second day with Adam on Adam's couch, hate watching and making fun of the '_Watch Again_ ' section of Gansey's Netflix account.

* * *

Towards the end of summer, Ronan schedules a company retreat, commands his employees to take a paid weekend in order to attend. Adam grumbles about it the entire week preceding their departure, and Ronan very much ignores it.

The pile into two cars, and Ronan is surprised to find him and Adam alone. He wonders when this distribution of persons to cars was decided, and very much doesn't complain over an insane fear that if he does, he'll end up not being in the same car as Adam.

"Do you ever listen to anything that isn't glorified ear murder?" Adam demands after turning off the radio.

"Nah," Ronan drawls, lets his voice really drag out the sounds of the word, an imitation of the southern accent he had heard leak through Adam's voice when he was tired or upset, "What's better to listen to then music?"

"That doesn't actually qualify as music," Adam scoffs, taps the dash a few times, like it'll help him think. Eventually, he says, "We could play 21 questions?"

"Oh, uh," Ronan says, pauses to press on his horn and yell at the fucker in the minivan that just cut him off, "Sure. Okay. Uh. When you die, what do you want engraved on your tombstone?"

Ronan hears Adam mumble "What the fuck," Under his breath before he says, louder, "I guess, that I was a good person? Well. That I was loved, and that I'll be missed. And I want the death date to be pretty far in the feature."

"That's boring. You should pick something like, 'Adam Parrish - A radical dude with a heretical tude' or ' Here lies Adam Parrish, Space Emperor'." Ronan says.

"Yeah, no." Adam laughs, and Ronan counts it as a victory, "Okay, uh, let me think of one... okay. Okay, so, do you have a detailed plan of what you would do in a zombie outbreak?"

"Duh," Ronan says, and then spends the next forty-five minutes going into the details of his plan. He isn't at all embarrassed to admit that he had spent long hours, both by himself and with Declan and Matthew, planning how they would secure the Barns in a post-apocalyptic zombie invasion. Half-way through his plan, he starts waving his right hand enthusiastically as he describes the routes around the perimeter they would take on jacked up ATV's to secure them from a surprise zombie attack. Adam allows the hand waving for a few minutes, but it must annoy him because he grabs Ronan's hand and holds it in his. 

Ronan doesn't complain. He's too afraid if he so much as mentions it, Adam'll stop. Which would be a fucking travesty, honestly. 

Before they get to the inn Ronan had booked their rooms at in Cape Cod, they go through another dozen questions, each a little more bizarre than the last. Their still arguing about whether it would be better to spend the rest of your life with Cheeto dust fingers or have everything you eat taste like Ranch.

Adam, who insists that Ranch actually tastes good, is obviously wrong.

Ronan also doesn't complain when they end up spending the rest of the weekend mostly alone. Gansey and Blue are busy doing gross couple stuff that Ronan does his best to ignore. Noah spends a lot of time of his new surf board, pretending he knows what he's doing.

And that leaves him and Adam, who spend several hours at a winery, listening to some loser go on about bouquet and tannin's and oakyness. They make exaggerated pretentious faces at each other while he talks, pretend to know what the fuck he's talking about, mmm-ing and hmm-ing along. Ronan then spends a good five minutes trying to convince the elderly couple seated with them about the importance of _'listening_ for a good wine, letting it _speak_ to you'.

Ronan is proud of Adam for containing his laughter behind an increasingly serious mask, waiting until they are seated back in Ronan's car to burst into laughter. They take their 'fruity, mid-palate, yet unfortunately reticent' wine back to the inn and drink it on the patio overlooking the ocean.

When the weekend is over, Ronan finds himself once again with only Adam in his car.

It's kind of great.

* * *

Ronan isn't sure how, or why, the hand holding continues. Occasionally. 

But it's great, sort of awesome. Adam has nice hands, the kind that are really great for holding. And, Ronan imagines, would be really great at other things too.

But. But it doesn't really stop there. At some point, movies nights become a thing. Where Ronan shows up at Adam's apartment on the nights he doesn't have the closing shift or an exam to study for with a pizza or armfuls of snacks or Chinese, and they watch sometimes shitty and sometimes really good movies on Netflix. And they still go out and get dinner together when Adam does have closing shifts.

And then Adam hears about a car show, and he brings Ronan along and they look at classic muscle cars for hours under the hot sun. Which just so happens to be where they hear about a band playing in some club downtown that's supposed to be awesome and they go together to that.

This, and a dozen other incidents, snowballs into Ronan kissing Adam before dropping him off at his apartment after the 'Friendsgiving' Gansey had subjected them all to. Which sort of leads to Ronan getting dragged up to Adam's apartment.

Which, a few hours later, sort of leads to them next to each other on Adam's bed, both of them still breathing heavy, and Ronan knowing that Adam's hands were indeed great at other things.

"Do you wanna be boyfriends?" Ronan asks. Hates himself a little for how he sounds when he asks it, unsure and nervous and bordering on shy.

"Yeah," Adam says, breaths in a deep inhale and lets it out in a puff, like he's letting something go, "Yeah. Yes. For sure, yeah."

"Cool," Ronan says, . "Oh, hey, there aren't like, rules against dating within the cafe, right?"

"Oh, a whole shit ton," Adam says.

**Author's Note:**

> God, just look at these poor losers, accidently dating like a couple of oafs.  
Everyone, the next day when they tell them their dating, "Yeaaah, you have been since at least early summer, right?"


End file.
